The Galiano Playground Story

Galiano Community School truly is a community school. Our playground project epitomizes what community can, and will do, when hearts and passions are united. What started off as a seed of a dream has blossomed in to an amazing reality.

Almost two years ago a mom of a little guy in Kindie came in to the school with the idea of maybe trying to improve our original standing playground. That mom brought her idea forward to a small group of dedicated hard working folks who not only embraced her dream, but in their enthusiasm, grew the dream even bigger.

The British Columbia Automobile Association (BCAA) introduced a competition for dollars to support the construction of playground facilities, and the Galiano community jumped right in. The passion, energy and commitment that started with a group of keen parents grew and grew and grew until it became an entire island holding close a vision and working tirelessly for months to bring the dream to life. Galiano, with a population of approximately 1000, brought in 100,000 votes! That in and of itself was a monumental victory. Even before any announcement was made, our school and community felt we had already won so much. Click here to watch a video and description of the playground plan. In the spring of 2017 it was announced that Galiano Community School won the ‘BCAA Play Here’ $100 000 campaign!

This week, with the sun shining down we are watching the fruits of all our efforts. Over 50 volunteers a day are pouring in daily to bring two brand new spectacular playgrounds to life!

more photos (click):

The gratitude that we at Galiano School have for so many is immense. Thank you to Kate for sharing her dream. Thank you to the core “Playground Team” that took Kate’s dream and grew it to include a second playground. Thank you to the kids, parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, friends, neighbours, and strangers who believed in the dream and found the most creative ways to capture hearts and capture votes! Thank you to Todd, Mark and ‘Suttle Recreation’ for bringing our penciled imagined vision to life. And a giant, giant, GIANT thank you to BCAA for showing us that dreams really do come true with a lot of hard work, a lot of deep care and commitment, and a whole lot of island heart!

Story: Shannon Johnston, Galiano Community School Principal
Photos: John Cameron